United pilots sue over training deadline

September 26, 2011|By Gregory Karp | Tribune reporter

United Airlines pilots are being rushed too quickly through inadequate flight retraining as they try to learn Continental Airlines' way of doing things in the cockpit, the pilots union alleges, claiming it has become a safety issue because pilots don't feel comfortable with the new flying rules.

The union for United pilots filed a federal lawsuit Monday asking a judge to delay implementation of changes to how pilots fly planes under a merged airline. The deadline for integrating a significant portion of the procedures is Friday.

However, a spokeswoman for United Airlines called the lawsuit a "shameful" attempt to gain advantage in ongoing union contract negotiations.

As United and Continental continue to merge operations, pilots will be adopting mostly Continental's cockpit procedures and checklists. United pilots need more time and training to learn the changes, said Capt. Wendy Morse, chairwoman of the United Master Executive Council of the Air Line Pilots Association.

"The company is implementing unrealistic deadlines and requiring only distance, computer-based training that we believe is inadequate to maintain the level of safety our passengers expect from United and its pilots," she said.

United said safety is its highest priority, and it alleged the lawsuit is a tactic in union contract talks between pilots and the airline.

"Our training procedures, which are fully approved and closely monitored by the FAA, meet or exceed safety standards, and we are a safe airline," United Airlines spokeswoman Julie King said. "This lawsuit ... is a shameful effort to influence negotiations for a joint collective bargaining agreement, under a false guise of safety."

Morse said the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, is unrelated to union contract talks with United Continental Holdings.

"It is an entirely separate issue," she said, adding that the union has a "solid wall between those two discussions." The suit seeks to prevent United from implementing the new procedures on schedule.

Though the airlines officially merged about a year ago, they are still mostly operating as separate airlines until the company receives a single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration. United officials have said they expect to receive that certificate this year.

To operate in the same cockpit, premerger United and Continental pilots must have a single set of operating procedures, the lawsuit says.

"Our members are pretty exercised that they don't feel comfortable in their airplanes," Morse said, adding that the computer-based training being offered is inadequate for creating muscle memory for new procedures. "It requires a classroom course, at the minimum." Classroom training can include cockpit mock-ups and flight simulators, the suit says.

Morse said retraining is like learning a new language. "It's like we're being asked to speak Russian by using a few mouse clicks, and that's not suitable," she said.

Examples of differences in procedures involve handling emergencies, such as recovering from wind shear, or keeping the plane flying level when fuel tanks become unbalanced and have different weights, Morse said.

"It's very different in terms of how we accomplish the same goal," she said. Some pilots have reported the computer training was taking six to eight hours instead of the one hour scheduled by the airline, the suit says.

Morse said the pilots association has been unsuccessful in talking about training concerns with United, "up and down the management chain and all the way to the CEO," as well as the FAA.

King said the suit is "without merit."

"We fully expect the court will find these claims to be groundless," she said.

Morse said it was a coincidence that the union filed the suit a day before Tuesday's scheduled rally in New York, where more than 700 uniformed pilots of United and Continental are scheduled to picket. Pilots will be protesting the slow pace of negotiations with the airline on a joint union contract. United pilots are eager to get out of a bankruptcy-era contract that slashed average pay by about 40 percent.